Public gets a preview of proposed South Hadley Public Library

Dave Roback / The RepublicanSouth Hadley Library Director Joseph Rodio stands in front of the plans for a proposed new town library at Main and Canal streets in South Hadley.

SOUTH HADLEY – Plans for the proposed new South Hadley Public Library are on display for the public at the library on Bardwell Street.

The display, titled “Views of Potential New South Hadley Library,” includes the word “potential” because the funds for the final part of the project have yet to be approved, although several early hurdles have been passed.

To help pay for the new building, the library is applying for a state library construction grant. The recipients of those grants will not be announced until summer.

Town Meeting has already approved the purchase of a site for the proposed library, the old Northeast Utilities property at Main and Canal streets in the town’s Falls section.

That site is now undergoing an appraisal, soil testing and other steps that precede negotiations for its purchase.

Dave Roback / The RepublicanThis is the proposed site of the new South Hadley Public Library at Main and Canal Streets. Plans for the proposed library are on display for the public at the present library on Bardwell Street. To learn more about plans for a new South Hadley Public Library, visit www.shadleylib.org; click on “Planning Design Project”.

The drawings on view at the library, prepared by the architectural firm Johnson and Roberts Associates, were made possible by a 2007 planning-and-design grant from the state, according to library Director Joseph Rodio.

The proposed new library would have a style inspired by South Hadley’s manufacturing past, with brick walls, rows of identical tall windows, and a brick clock tower with a peaked roof in the pale green verdigris color of antique copper.

“We want a building that fits in with the neighborhood,” said Rodio, “something new and exciting, but something that keeps in character and looks like it belongs right there.”

One of the building’s highlights would be a dramatic view from the back windows. Those windows would look out over the Connecticut River and the Holyoke Dam, with a view of the historic canals that made South Hadley and Holyoke centers of commerce for a century.

Rodio said he had received “a lot of positive comments” about the display from library patrons.

The drawings indicate the new library would have parking space for 56 vehicles.